Improving science-policy interface: Lessons from the policy lab methodology in Nepal's community forest governance

Co‐creating knowledge, policy, and practice: A call to advance Water Policy Lab process

“…Another example relates to improving forest governance in Nepal, presented by Ojha et al. (2019). It was designed and tested in the context of the project called “Enhancing Livelihoods and Food Security from Agroforestry and Community Forestry in Nepal”, abbreviated as EnLiFT.…”

Research Trends: Advanced approaches for a better understanding of scientific knowledge transfer in forest and forest-related policy

“…Another innovative method that is used to organize scientific knowledge transfer in transdisciplinary research settings are so-called "policy labs". Hemant Ojha, Udeep Regmi, Krishna K. Shrestha, Naya Sharma Paudel, Swoyambhu Man Amatya, Anthony Zwi, Ian Nuberg, EdwinCedamon, and Mani Banjade present a case study from Nepal (Ojha et al, 2019). Here, policy lab methodology was used in Nepal's community forestry governance.…”

An Ecosystem Services Valuation Research Framework for Policy Integration in Developing Countries: A Case Study from Nepal

“…Many researchers report similar findings in relation to ES research in Nepal and in other countries about stakeholder engagement. For example, Ojha and his team [31] emphasized that strong engagement of stakeholders for collaborative enquiry is essential for influencing better policy outcomes in Nepal; they argue that this is still a crucial issue in the policy-research interface. Similarly, some authors [15,32] highlighted that critical stakeholder engagement is one of the main issues in the policy process, while another study [33] stressed that poor access and the limited capacity of the stakeholders to be involved in the policy process is the key issue to be addressed.…”

“…Prior studies agree that reliable data are required to persuade the policymakers about the ES research outcomes [31,34] and other scholars acknowledge that ES research demands both social and ecological information to produce acceptable ES research outcomes that are applicable to policy [22]. Records of ES use patterns, especially provisioning services, are, however, not adequately recorded in the developing countries [39,43].…”

“…One recent study conducted in Nepal on the science-policy interface concluded that policy processes were often led either by government, civil society or donor agencies. These agencies are rarely able to agree with each other and policymakers mostly ignore their recommendation although the recommendation could be very useful [31]. To overcome this impasse, the researchers can facilitate several small-group discussions rather than organising one big meeting that includes many stakeholders.…”